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It’s been a long and winding road since I started the DigNuggetville blog in August 2011. Reflecting back, there is a lot to be happy about but particularly, DigNuggetville as remained focused on its mission since Day 1:

“The number one mission of this blog is to disseminate, distribute, broadcast, circulate, etc., nuggets. As you recall, nuggets are takeaways – a kernel of information that you would like to stow away for future use.”

Going forward, I do not see the mission changing anytime soon. If there were one thing I would like to do more of in the next 100 posts, it would be more “nuggets” from the DigNuggetville community. Bradley Childs’ 2013 Seton Hall valedictorian speech is not only in the Top 10 of all time, its #1 (with a bullet!). Jenny Zhang’s question on the difference between market-driven and market-driving (marketing orientation) is #4 of all time. It would be fantastic to have another two or three posts coming from the DigNuggetville community make it into the Top 10 before I hit milestone post #400.

And now for the big announcement – something worthy of milestone post – How many times in class have I recommended a podcast (or made you listen to one because it was part of your grade)? There has to be dozens of podcast links in the previous 299 posts on DigNuggetville. So….

Dr. Dan-o is the co-host of a new podcast that will launch in the next week titled:

The David Diehl Show – Sports, Tech, and a Bunch of Other Stuff with Co-Host Dr. Dan-o – – presented by Today’s Business

Much thanks goes out to 2-time Super Bowl winner for the New York Football Giants and host of the podcast David Diehl. David is busy dude (NY Giants broadcast booth, Fox NFL Game Analyst, Sirius XM radio, even an extra in the new Entourage movie) but he still has time to hang out and have fun with the podcast. Extra thanks goes out to Tom Ottaiano (CEO) and Chaz Cervino (CCO) of Today’s Business for coming up with the idea for the podcast. Tom and Chaz have guest lectured in my classes, hired former Dr. Dan-o students for internships and currently have a former Dr. Dan-o student as a full-time employee – Brent Eppley who also happens to be the production manager (AKA Prime Minister) of the AskDDShow.

The AskDDShow is going to be a ton of fun! Follow us on Twitter and Instragram @AskDDShow and send us your sports and tech questions!

Shocker…$19 billion is A LOT of money. However, this is a great call from Facebook. After doing a little digging in the blogosphere and thinking about this a bit more, Facebook is not just a social juggernaut, it has become the social juggernaut.

Now for few numbers: the deal was $4 billion is cash, $12 billion in stock, and $3 billion in restrictive stock unit shares that will vest over time to the 32 engineers – think of this as retention bonuses. (Yes, there are just 32 individuals, who are now all multi multi millionaires, who work at this firm). WhatsApp has over 450 million active daily users worldwide (most of which are outside the US). That’s double Twitter’s active user base. Moreover, 9 months ago, WhatsApp announced the service had over 200 million active daily users, which was more than Twitter then, and of course, now. Shockingly, that also means WhatsApp is growing three-times faster than Twitter (and everyone else for that matter). Could Facebook and WhatsApp be the only two social networks in the world with a billion users in 2015? I think so….

What does this all mean:

-Facebook + Instagram + WhatsApp = the 800 lb gorilla of social media

-WhatsApp is almost all mobile and mostly international – two HUGE wins for Facebook that has strong growth in both but dominate in neither (until now)

-I wonder what it will be like to go to work at SnapChat this morning when they just turned down $3 billion from Facebook this month – could someone overreact in the next week and back a truck load of money to their doorstep?

-As for losers: Google (who has been trying to buy WhatsApp for months), Yahoo (who does not have a business that is growing at scale and is also weak in mobile AND global)

-And the biggest loser of all? Another (or the final) nail in Blackberry coffin? – Blackberry invented the global messaging category and now they are watching others make billions

-This is NOT a “bet the farm” deal for Facebook. It is an aggressive deal for sure but Wall Street likes aggressive deals and I believe the stock will pop today. Think about it and their current market cap – this is just $4 billion in cash and the rest in stock. YOU CANNOT build a business with 450 million active users and growing at 3X at almost any price

-I have a feeling that this deal is going to change the culture in the valley from cautious VC money growth and IPO (like Twitter) to big time deals and M&A (like this deal)

-This reminds me of the YouTube deal way back when at $1.6 billion. That was A LOT of money but it was all stock (Google’s evaluation when up more than $5 billion in the week after the deal) and Google picked up the dominate player in a category that Google was an “also ran.”

While reading through my inbox today, I came across an excellent quote from Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin:

“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”

This not the first quote on DigNuggetville nor do I expect it to be the last from Big Ben. Mr. Franklin’s quote reminds me of one of my top nuggets or takeaways from my Principles of Marketing class:

“Tell people what is it in for them, because if there is something in it for them, they will be interested in what you have to say.”

In sum, if you want to be persuasive, appeal to the individually personally – it’s better then using pure logic or an argument. Wikipedia’s persuasion entry has an excellent round-up on persuasion ideas and theories.

I’m a big fan of the new, odd, weird and different out there on the cutting edge so it’s not surprising that TED and its excellent talks have been featured here on DigNuggetville. Does this grab your attention?

“In the 20th century, getting your child a toy car meant a trip to a shopping mall. In the 21st century, it can mean going to your computer, downloading a file and creating the toy on your 3-D printer.”

The latest at TED’s Global Conference features Massimo Banzio who highlights the open-source movement and what it means for people who like to build things (e.g., via an at home 3D printer – click here for video). In addition, CNN.com does a nice overview (click here) of Massimo as well as the other interesting presenters from the June Global Conference.

In recent months, Apple has been consistently valued by the stock market as one of the most valuable firms in the world. In such rarefied air, Apple is often scrutinized by Wall Street. Just this past March, even I took stab at where Apple’s stock was heading (click here).

Recently, a new round of prognosticators – some professionals, some rigorous amateurs – served up their latest predictions. First, up is from Gene Munster, a research analyst at Minneapolis brokerage firm Piper Jaffray and he is calling for Apple to reach $1,000 a share by 2014 and become the first U.S. company worth $1 trillion (click here). Second, is an investor roundup compiled by Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Editor of the Fortune Apple 2.0 blog and he found the average consensus places Apple’s target share price was at $724 to $753 (click here).

Groupon is often dissected in the business press (almost always negatively in the past few months) as their business model is not producing the revenue expected pre-IPO. Recently, I was asked to write an editorial on Groupon on www.commpro.biz and the following story was posted (click here).

Here’s a different kind of Nuggetville post – partially inspired by an article I was reading in Rolling Stone on Lady Gaga. Now, I would not describe myself as a Lady Gaga fan. I do hear her songs on the radio and there is not doubt she is talented. If she’s on an awards show, it’s worth tuning in just because she will do something interesting. But that said, the current edition of Lady Gaga – two albums and a number of chart toppers – is unsustainable. No one – not an artist – not a firm – not a brand can continually do the same thing year in and year out before the fanbase gets board. It’s not novel. It’s not interesting. How many times are you going to see the same romantic comedy and before you even eat your first handful of popcorn, you already know the guy and the girl are going to get together at the end of this Hollywood movie. The public got bored of Elvis, Michael Jackson, even the Beatles at certain points of their careers.

Here’s my nugget for the day – if you want to be interesting, do the COMPLETE opposite of what is expected. Yes this is quite risky but how else can you reinvent yourself or your brand unless you do something unexpected?

Here’s my crazy thought for Lady Gaga: for her next album, dump the disco and the dance hall tunes and go hard cord, old school 70’s rock and roll. She is already setting the foundation for this musical direction: her performance at the 2011 MTV Video Awards featured a song with a Queen’s guitarist Brain May. She has performed with and is very close to (godmother to his son) Elton John. Could Lady Gaga channel David Bowie e.g., Ziggy Stardust? Sure! Have throwback Lenny Kravitz produce the album and play guitar, with John Paul Jones on bass (e.g., “Are you going my way” Lenny Kravitz tune). Have multiple guess musicians like Brian May, Bowie, Elton John, etc perform duets on the album. I mean could Lady Gaga outdo Meatloaf in a 7-minute duet with Mr. Kravitz? You bet. Remember Mr. Kravitz wrote a handful of hits for another female performer who always found a way to re-invent herself to sustain her career – Madonna.

Mr. Mike has some leadership lessons for us but more importantly, he has a Nugget Keyword too – Passion. Being a leader, a marketer, an entrepreneur, a professor, etc is not about luck. Stuff doesn’t just fall out of the sky. Hitting the lottery with a 1 in 500,000,000 chance does not accurately describe what we do or how we do it. It’s about passion – that singularity of focus, the unwavering effort, the never say die attitude about what you are passionate about.

How do you know if you are passionate about something? Does it keep you up at night? Do you think about it all the time? Do you talk to everyone about it? It’s a fire within you and you cannot put it out (nor would you want to).

John Maxwell, the author referenced below, is excellent and this book is an excellent read. Check out Mr. Mike’s words of wisdom below.

Best

Dr. Dan-o

To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning

Georg Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher, wrote: “”Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.” We have experienced this in our own life. Take a moment. Think of an event, situation or person that ignited a fire and passion within us to accomplish something beautiful and exciting. It is a wonderful and majestic happening – an inspiration of genius that moves us to action. John Maxwell in his book, Power of Passion, shares four truths about passion:

Passion is the first step in achievement – the greater the fire, the greater the movement forward

Passion increases your willpower – the stronger the desire to achieve something, the stronger becomes the willpower to drive it forward

Passion changes you – it energizes all of you – the mind, body, heart and soul; its embers heighten our awareness to life

Passion makes the impossible possible – you see new potential in yourself and others; boundaries disappear or become irrelevant; new possibilities emerge

Passion moves, strengthens, changes and inspires, taking us and those we touch to new levels of performance and personal fulfillment. Luisa Sigea, author, wrote: “Blaze with the fire that is never extinguished.” May your week be filled with this fire, with the passion that drives you to reach your fullest potential. If the embers are low, rekindle them. Recall your dreams – the things that you love, what excites you, your life’s purpose. In everything that you do or think, bring your passion to life. Let its fire burn brightly so people see it in your eyes and on your face, hear it in your words and feel it in your energy and enthusiasm. Be more than you ever dreamed you could be… and have fun doing it.

I often think that Tumblr, as well as StumbleUpon, do not get enough love by the social media press. That said, here are 5 excellent Tumblr tips (click here) from Mashable. Yes it’s framed as tips for non-profits but they are nice nuggets nonetheless.